INTRODUCTION

By historical standards, British manufacturing enjoyed a very high rate of productivity growth during the period 1951–73. Nevertheless, this was still a relatively low rate of growth compared to most West European countries, so that Britain was slow in catching-up with the United States, the world productivity leader in manufacturing (and the economy as a whole). Since 1979, much of the manufacturing productivity gap that opened up with other West European countries after the Second World War has been eliminated, but this has occurred through a decline in employment rather than an acceleration in output growth.

The slow growth before 1979 can be explained by difficulties associated with the shift of markets away from the Empire towards Europe and by industrial relations problems associated with attempts to apply US style mass production technology (Broadberry 1997c). Attempts to avoid deindustrialisation during this period led to the adoption of highly interventionist industrial policies, which contained deindustrialisation but did not really solve the underlying problems. After 1979, government support for ailing industries was drastically reduced and legislative reform transformed industrial relations. At the same time, there was a move away from US-style mass production technology and a revival of flexible production, a traditional British strength. Also, the adjustment to European markets was by this stage largely complete.

In considering the performance of British manufacturing since the Second World War, it is important to avoid the excessive pessimism of the ‘declinists’, who undoubtedly dominated the literature of the 1980s (Wiener 1981; Kirby 1981; Dintenfass 1982; Pollard 1984; Elbaum and Lazonick 1986; Barnett 1986; Alford 1988).